RocketDNA Launches Skylink Platform to Scale Autonomous Drone Operations

RocketDNA has taken a step toward transforming its drone services into a scalable technology platform, unveiling its proprietary Skylink operating system and deploying it with a Tier-1 mining customer.

The ASX-listed drone data specialist says Skylink acts as a centralised operating system for managing autonomous drone missions across enterprise sites. The platform has entered an initial testing phase with an existing global mining client, providing a live environment to refine the software before broader commercial rollout.

The move signals RocketDNA’s push beyond simply supplying drone services toward building a software ecosystem that can orchestrate fleets of autonomous drones across large industrial operations.

According to managing director and CEO Christopher Clark, the system represents a major evolution in how mining companies and other industrial customers can deploy aerial data services.

“We’ve effectively built an operating system that unlocks the power of on-demand drone data, combined with operational transparency and centralised management, giving our customers the confidence to deploy our autonomous systems at scale,” Clark said.

Turning drones into a managed digital workflow

At its core, Skylink functions as a mission management platform that allows enterprise users to request and coordinate drone operations from anywhere.

Customers can draw mission areas directly within the system, set priority levels and receive real-time status updates as flights are executed. The platform also allows missions to be scheduled in advance or triggered automatically at regular intervals, enabling consistent data collection across large industrial sites.

This capability is particularly relevant for mining operations, where aerial inspections, surveying and monitoring tasks are routine but traditionally labour intensive.

By digitising the workflow, RocketDNA aims to shift drone usage from occasional manual deployments toward continuous automated data collection.

The system also integrates with RocketDNA’s existing SiteTube product, creating a full pipeline from mission request through to data delivery and visualisation.

For customers, the attraction is the ability to request and receive drone-derived data on demand without managing the underlying hardware or flight operations.

Enabling automation and third-party integration

A key feature of Skylink is its potential to become the central command layer for increasingly automated drone fleets.

The platform is designed to support machine-to-machine triggering of missions, meaning software systems could automatically request drone flights when specific conditions occur. This could include asset monitoring alerts, safety inspections or operational checks triggered by other industrial systems.

The architecture also allows third-party original equipment manufacturers and software providers to integrate their applications with Skylink, enabling custom analytics or geospatial tools to automatically dispatch drone missions.

Clark said this capability could unlock new productivity and safety benefits for large industrial users.

“It creates an opportunity for third-party OEMs and other software providers to integrate and trigger autonomous drone missions from anywhere in the world, unlocking custom AI and geospatial applications that provide cost savings, improved productivity and increased safety.”

For RocketDNA, this approach opens the possibility of evolving from a services business toward a software-enabled ecosystem.

Early deployment with Tier-1 mining customer

The first live deployment is taking place with an existing Tier-1 mining customer, providing a real-world environment to test the system while handling actual operational workloads.

RocketDNA says the rollout should improve deployment speed, operational efficiency and consistency across multi-site drone operations.

Engagement with large mining clients is expected to help refine the platform before a broader commercial rollout. Feedback from early users will inform future product iterations and feature upgrades.

The company plans to evolve Skylink through staged releases, adding deeper automation capabilities, improved analytics tools and enhanced interoperability with other systems.

Over time, the platform is expected to support higher levels of automation, including “one-to-many” operations where a single operator can manage multiple drone systems simultaneously across different sites.

Strategic implications for RocketDNA

RocketDNA already provides drone-based surveying, mapping, surveillance and inspection services to enterprise customers in mining, agriculture and engineering sectors across Australia and Africa. Its client roster includes major miners such as Rio Tinto, BHP and South32.

Historically, much of the company’s revenue has been tied to service contracts for drone operations.

The development of Skylink hints at a longer-term strategy to add a higher-margin software layer on top of those services.

If successful, the platform could enable RocketDNA to manage larger fleets of autonomous drones while reducing operational complexity. It may also create opportunities for licensing software capabilities or integrating with external technology partners.

For investors, the key question will be how quickly Skylink transitions from pilot deployments to broader commercial adoption.

The company has indicated that it will provide updates as the deployment progresses, particularly if material commercial developments emerge.

For now, the launch represents a technology milestone rather than a revenue event. But in the race to automate industrial data collection, RocketDNA appears determined to build the operating system that sits at the centre of the drone ecosystem.